So, if the Pratapgad war was fought between Shivaji and Afzalkhan, why do I keep talking about the rivalry between Afzalkhan and Shahaji? What was this rivalry all about and how does it relate to the context of Pratapgad war?
The rivalry I am going to write about began like any other professional rivalries among peers and then got ugly when personal attacks were made.
And now that we are anyways talking about a professional rivalry, lets start this chapter with tracing the career paths of both Afzalkhan and Shahaji. By the way, by the look of it this may turn out to be a lengthy chapter and I will be splitting it into three parts.
While tracing the career of Afzalkhan, we find him serving at various positions and ranks within the Adilshahi Army and from these positions, we can know his gradual rise to prominence.
He was a head constable [Sar-Hawaldar] at early stages of his career and moved in to the Adilshahi Army, when Randulla Khan took over as the Commander of Adilshahi forces. He fought under the leadership of Randulla Khan and Mustafa Khan in many battles, specially in the current Karnataka state.
As feats of Afzalkhan started becoming well-known, his rank grew.
During the famous Bhatwadi battle, he was a nobody. In 1637, the Adilshahi forces started their campaign against the Hindu kingdoms of the south. It was only during this period of continuous warfare, that Afzalkhan became well-known. In 1639, his treachery and murder of Raja Kasturi Ranga made him really popular within the adilshahi sultanate, and by the time it was 1644, he was already a Prominent officer working along side Randulla Khan and Mustafa Khan.
Around 1640, he was made a proxy [Naayab] by Randulla Khan to take care of governance matters in Wai. Eventually, after death of Randulla Khan, Afzalkhan replaced Randulla Khan as the Subhedaar of Wai.
Just a passing reference, Afzalkhan had a special expertise in artillery and commanded a personal platoon of light artillery - hand held cannons, mid-sized cannons etc.
After the courageous fight against Aurangzeb in 1656, he was entitled as Mansabdaar and was given an elite force of 10,000 men to command by Adilshah.
So, there you go!! Almost a life time [20+ years from Bhatwadi to Pratapgad battle] of Loyalty, hard work and valor to become a Mansabdaar with 10,000 soldiers.
With this background, we can now move on to the story of Shahaji. And to tell the story of Shahaji, I need to go a little back in the history.
There was a African Slave boy, who was bought by the Nizamshah. This boy grew up as a slave like many others, but he knew, he cannot be the same forever.
So, began the story of Malik Ambar. He started grouping the fellow slaves and when the time came, these slaves transformed themselves into a war force. They fought for the Nimashah and showed him their worth.
Impressed with valor and wisedom of Malik Ambar, Nizamshah made him an officer in his court. As Malik Ambar grew in his ranks, he expanded his forces. He freed and recruited slaves which were capable of battle and he started promoting Hindu warlords of Maharashtra for their bravery and achievements in battle. Suddenly, those who were only a subject of neglect and atrocities started gaining ranks. This transformation was a new experience to many.
Malik Ambar encouraged self-respect, bravery and resourcefulness. He himself grew upto the rank of Vazir in Nizamshahi sultanate.
There was one young Maratha warlord, who took the lessons of Malik Ambar way too seriously. He always considered himself an aristocrat, a nobleman and started calling himself with a title 'Raje' [King]. He developed new guerilla warfare tactics and created an invincible army of fellow Marathas. This young warlord was none other than Shahaji Raje.
And then came the day of the famous battle of Bhatwadi bringing in a glorious and historical win for Shahaji Raje. His Invincible valor was now certified.
While this win was largely celebrated by the Nizamshahi sultanate, the aging Malik Ambar did not take it too well. He could sense that Shahaji Raje was on the rise and this could mean that the next Vajir would as well be Shahaji Raje and not his own son. Politics creeped in and Nizamshah was persuaded to promote Shahaji's nephew to the post of Commander by sidelining Shahaji.
Shahaji could sense a family trouble and also sense the hostility in Malik Ambar's mind. Instead of falling for political tricks, he decided to move out of Nizamshahi.
When Shahaji approached Adilshah, I could imagine Adilshah's state of mind to be same as that of the underworld don in 'Ab Tak 56' movie.When the most honest police officer of crime branch decides to go rogue and approaches the underworld don, he knows that this is the man who has killed more than 50 gangsters, this is the same man who has slayed 32 members of his own gang and yet the only choice he could think of is to invite the guy with open arms. He cannot resist to think that this guy would bring in so much intel about rivals, about spies, about forth coming hazards - add to it the guy himself is brave and invincible. He would be the prized asset to possess.
So, for more or less the same reasons, Adilshah happily invited Shahaji to join him and not just that, he conferred a title of 'Farjand' on Shahaji and gave him an elite force of 10,000 men to command.
One smart career move that was, I would say :-)
I can't help imagining the expressions on the faces of all those Adilshahi men, ranking officers and common soldiers, when they would have first seen Shahaji Raje moving along freely on the streets of Bijapur and also, think of all the embarrasment, all the frustration, all the anger they would have concealed within themselves when the news of Shahaji being made a Farjand would have broke out to them - This was the same man, whom they absolutely hated - for the religion he belonged to and for the humiliation he had inflicted on them at Bhatwadi. I also cant help to presume that Afzalkhan was one of those men and the bitterness in his mind for Shahaji started around this time.
It's like those men working on a sales project - they do their research, they work hard, they work their way up to the Client's Demand and Supply Management, and then when they are only an inch close to getting the deal, some Biz School graduate of rival company walks in, talks with the client for 5 minutes and takes home the deal. If this loss was not humiliating enough, they find the director of their own company give an elaborate speech in the next week - "Current business dynamics demand that we have a new Vice President. So, welcome Mr. smart-guy-Rival as your new VP"!!
Getting the vibe??
As the years passed on, this hatred for Shahaji grew more and more in Afzalkhan's mind. More about that in Part II of the Chapter.
The rivalry I am going to write about began like any other professional rivalries among peers and then got ugly when personal attacks were made.
And now that we are anyways talking about a professional rivalry, lets start this chapter with tracing the career paths of both Afzalkhan and Shahaji. By the way, by the look of it this may turn out to be a lengthy chapter and I will be splitting it into three parts.
While tracing the career of Afzalkhan, we find him serving at various positions and ranks within the Adilshahi Army and from these positions, we can know his gradual rise to prominence.
He was a head constable [Sar-Hawaldar] at early stages of his career and moved in to the Adilshahi Army, when Randulla Khan took over as the Commander of Adilshahi forces. He fought under the leadership of Randulla Khan and Mustafa Khan in many battles, specially in the current Karnataka state.
As feats of Afzalkhan started becoming well-known, his rank grew.
During the famous Bhatwadi battle, he was a nobody. In 1637, the Adilshahi forces started their campaign against the Hindu kingdoms of the south. It was only during this period of continuous warfare, that Afzalkhan became well-known. In 1639, his treachery and murder of Raja Kasturi Ranga made him really popular within the adilshahi sultanate, and by the time it was 1644, he was already a Prominent officer working along side Randulla Khan and Mustafa Khan.
Around 1640, he was made a proxy [Naayab] by Randulla Khan to take care of governance matters in Wai. Eventually, after death of Randulla Khan, Afzalkhan replaced Randulla Khan as the Subhedaar of Wai.
Just a passing reference, Afzalkhan had a special expertise in artillery and commanded a personal platoon of light artillery - hand held cannons, mid-sized cannons etc.
After the courageous fight against Aurangzeb in 1656, he was entitled as Mansabdaar and was given an elite force of 10,000 men to command by Adilshah.
So, there you go!! Almost a life time [20+ years from Bhatwadi to Pratapgad battle] of Loyalty, hard work and valor to become a Mansabdaar with 10,000 soldiers.
With this background, we can now move on to the story of Shahaji. And to tell the story of Shahaji, I need to go a little back in the history.
There was a African Slave boy, who was bought by the Nizamshah. This boy grew up as a slave like many others, but he knew, he cannot be the same forever.
So, began the story of Malik Ambar. He started grouping the fellow slaves and when the time came, these slaves transformed themselves into a war force. They fought for the Nimashah and showed him their worth.
Impressed with valor and wisedom of Malik Ambar, Nizamshah made him an officer in his court. As Malik Ambar grew in his ranks, he expanded his forces. He freed and recruited slaves which were capable of battle and he started promoting Hindu warlords of Maharashtra for their bravery and achievements in battle. Suddenly, those who were only a subject of neglect and atrocities started gaining ranks. This transformation was a new experience to many.
Malik Ambar encouraged self-respect, bravery and resourcefulness. He himself grew upto the rank of Vazir in Nizamshahi sultanate.
There was one young Maratha warlord, who took the lessons of Malik Ambar way too seriously. He always considered himself an aristocrat, a nobleman and started calling himself with a title 'Raje' [King]. He developed new guerilla warfare tactics and created an invincible army of fellow Marathas. This young warlord was none other than Shahaji Raje.
And then came the day of the famous battle of Bhatwadi bringing in a glorious and historical win for Shahaji Raje. His Invincible valor was now certified.
While this win was largely celebrated by the Nizamshahi sultanate, the aging Malik Ambar did not take it too well. He could sense that Shahaji Raje was on the rise and this could mean that the next Vajir would as well be Shahaji Raje and not his own son. Politics creeped in and Nizamshah was persuaded to promote Shahaji's nephew to the post of Commander by sidelining Shahaji.
Shahaji could sense a family trouble and also sense the hostility in Malik Ambar's mind. Instead of falling for political tricks, he decided to move out of Nizamshahi.
When Shahaji approached Adilshah, I could imagine Adilshah's state of mind to be same as that of the underworld don in 'Ab Tak 56' movie.When the most honest police officer of crime branch decides to go rogue and approaches the underworld don, he knows that this is the man who has killed more than 50 gangsters, this is the same man who has slayed 32 members of his own gang and yet the only choice he could think of is to invite the guy with open arms. He cannot resist to think that this guy would bring in so much intel about rivals, about spies, about forth coming hazards - add to it the guy himself is brave and invincible. He would be the prized asset to possess.
So, for more or less the same reasons, Adilshah happily invited Shahaji to join him and not just that, he conferred a title of 'Farjand' on Shahaji and gave him an elite force of 10,000 men to command.
One smart career move that was, I would say :-)
I can't help imagining the expressions on the faces of all those Adilshahi men, ranking officers and common soldiers, when they would have first seen Shahaji Raje moving along freely on the streets of Bijapur and also, think of all the embarrasment, all the frustration, all the anger they would have concealed within themselves when the news of Shahaji being made a Farjand would have broke out to them - This was the same man, whom they absolutely hated - for the religion he belonged to and for the humiliation he had inflicted on them at Bhatwadi. I also cant help to presume that Afzalkhan was one of those men and the bitterness in his mind for Shahaji started around this time.
It's like those men working on a sales project - they do their research, they work hard, they work their way up to the Client's Demand and Supply Management, and then when they are only an inch close to getting the deal, some Biz School graduate of rival company walks in, talks with the client for 5 minutes and takes home the deal. If this loss was not humiliating enough, they find the director of their own company give an elaborate speech in the next week - "Current business dynamics demand that we have a new Vice President. So, welcome Mr. smart-guy-Rival as your new VP"!!
Getting the vibe??
As the years passed on, this hatred for Shahaji grew more and more in Afzalkhan's mind. More about that in Part II of the Chapter.
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